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Kyle Busch rallies late to win Wednesday night Bristol truck race

August 20, 2013

Kyle Busch raced to victory Wednesday night in Bristol in the Camping World Truck Series race. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Kyle Busch is one-third of the way to another “Bristol Sweep,” but even he didn’t fathom the first of his three NASCAR races this weekend to end like this. Once hopelessly behind with time running out, he rallied late and led only seven of the last eight laps of Wednesday night’s UNOH Camping World Truck Series 200 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Timothy Peters was in control – well ahead of the field much of the night – until two late cautions changed everything. The first of them, for Jeff Agnew’s spin at lap 179 and restart at 188, saw Peters and second-running Matt Crafton struggled to get up to speed. That created a multi-car melee behind them, allowing Busch to gain a handful of spots when Brad Keselowski reamed Crafton and spun. That incident set up another caution at lap 190 and another restart at 193, and this one gave Busch his best chance to finally charge to the front.

“I messed up in qualifying (he started 10th) and hurt my guys on pit road, but it’s cool to have two lanes we can race on here,” he said. “It took a few laps to clear Ryan (Blaney), then I knew I had the momentum (over Peters). He threw a ‘Hail, Mary’ at the line, but I was already there.”

Earlier, under caution at lap 75, Busch went from second in line to the rear for speeding on pit road. He restarted 24th and struggled to rejoin the top 10, not getting there until lap 128. He ran the next 50 laps in ninth, 10th or 11th, and certainly didn’t seem a threat to win. Without the two late cautions, in fact, he might have been lucky to finish just inside the top 10.

The 200-lapper was fairly routine until the final laps. Elliott led laps 1-62, Peters led 63-71, Elliott again for 72 under caution, then Peters led 73-188. Blaney led 189-192, Busch led 193, Blaney led 194 and Busch 195-200. Those four were the only lap-leaders on a night when five cautions slowed the race for 32 laps.

Busch is seeking his second “Bristol Sweep” by winning the Truck Series, Nationwide Series and Sprint Cup races this weekend. He did it in 2010 and has won two NASCAR races on the same weekend nine other times. He and Keselowski are the only drivers entered in all three this weekend.